Page 78 of Where the Dark Knelt
“I wanted you to come and hear us. It’ll be good for you. Now, enough of the soul searching, let’s go let our hair down.”
He led me to the minivan. This had been converted for them to travel around in. Some of the seats had been taken out. Others were set like two booths with tables in the middle.
The extra spaceheld their guitars and bags. There were four other guys sitting there: one tuning a guitar, one reading a tablet, and two in conversation at the back.
“Guys… Lily, Lily… guys,” like that told all of us what we needed to know about each other. He motioned at me to sit in the free seats with a table. “Beer or wine?” he asked, reaching into a large cooler and plucking out a wet beer bottle, sliding the excess water off with his hand while he waited for my reply.
Feeling self-conscious, I blushed as all the guys’ attention seemed to be focused on me. I was the only female, and if I was being totally honest, I felt a little exposed. “Wine, please.”
Alfie wasn’t looking at me,but when he turned around, he produced an oversized plastic tumbler, which was almost three-quarters full, and sat facing me. “Jeez, Alfie, are you trying to get me drunk?”
He grinned wickedly. “Only enough to get into your panties.” He smirked, and the other guys laughed out loud. I blushed and felt that Alfie’s remark wasn’t said entirely in jest.
One of the guys sitting in the back walked past us, and the others were still staring at me. He pulled a beer from the cooler and came back, stopping beside me.
“I’m Drew, pleased to meet you, Lily. Is that a London accent?” Drew was charming and almost as hot looking as Alfie. He was taller than Alfie, but just as muscularly toned, with a strong angular jaw and fabulous gray eyes. His hair was dark brown in color and mussed in just the right way.
He seemed a laid-back guy, and as he spoke, I couldn’t help but notice his perfect white teeth framed by a luscious mouth. When I looked closely at all the guys, they were collectively a great looking band.
We chatted for a few minutes, and I warmed to him. He was really easy to talk to. I was aware that Alfie was studying us, his beer bottle almost stuck to his lips, but not really drinking it, and his eyes had narrowed.I wondered what he was thinking at that moment. He cleared his throat and clunked his beer bottle noisily on the table.
“Okay, Drew, enough. Get your own girl.” I blushed, and Drew quickly disappeared to the back again. I looked awkwardly at Alfie.
“Were we making you jealous, Alfie?” He held my gazeand smirked, but it didn’t quite change the annoyance in his eyes before he moved away and kicked his boots off.
Noticing me watching him, he offered, “Just making myself more comfortable, it’s a couple of hours to Orlando, maybe we can get to know each other a little better.” I blushed crimson, thinking this was an inference to his intimate knowledge of me already, or another of his games.
My eyes flicked nervously at the other guys, one of whom continued to watch me. Alfie’s eyes widened, realizing what I thought and smirked. He leaned into my ear, and whispered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. I meant life for you before Florida.” He was smirking now. “You’re too cute… though, I like the way your mind works.” He winked at me.
I began to relax and told him about my life, the past few years of it anyway,my dad being a helicopter pilot, my mom a pediatrician, some stuff about my close family, and that I was an only child. Then some of the things I’d done before college, mainly the work in India and England with kids before coming to Florida.
The look on his face was one of admiration. “Dang, you’ve done some profound stuff in yourshort life already. So now it’s your music? I heard you sing a little. Your voice is sweet, but there’s a bit of grit in it, unique sounding. Would you sing with me sometime?”
I couldn’t see why he would possibly want to sing with me.His voice was incredibly sexy from what I’d heard during our limited time on the lawn.
“I’m not bullshitting you, Lily. I want to try some stuff I’ve been working on with you.” I should have been flattered, but I was suspicious that this could be another one of his attempts to string me along.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable singing with you, Alfie.”
His eyes went wide. “Sure you would, once you were comfortable with the arrangement.” I felt a little peeved thathe dismissed my opinion so freely. He had no interest in finding out what my concerns were about us collaborating.
“Okay, your turn,” I prompted as cheerily as possible. I wanted to try to get him to open up to me, and I also wanted to try to get to the bottom of his relationship with the girl on campus. She intrigued me too much.What was it about her that had him so wrapped up in her?
As soon as I began to probe about his life, he ran his hand through his hair. “Just a minute, refill,” he said, shaking his empty beer bottle at me. He got up and made his way to the cooler. When he returned, he squeezed in alongside me.
Alfie’s closeness gave me butterflies in my stomach as his hip brushed alongside mine when he settled himself. My chest rose and fell quicker as my heart sped up.He bit his bottom lip, his tongue flicking out slowly wetting it, as his eyes briefly glanced over my mouth. I tried consciously not to swallow when he did this.
Lifting his arm, he leaned away from me, to make room between us.He slid his arm along the back of me without making contact. The anticipation that he could drop his arm around me at any moment made me feel excited and uncomfortable at the same time.
When his eyes met mine, he held my gaze. My body tensed and I looked away, before crossing my legs to make some space between us. “What do you want to know? My life has been in Florida… born and raised here. I’ve always been here, apart from the occasional vacation. That might change though in the New Year, there’s a hint we may open for a small tour in Europe.”
Turning back, he focused on his beer. There was no eye contact after that. “There isn’t anything else to say.” He shrugged and picked at the label on his bottle, before taking a swig out of it and setting it down. His eyes darted over towhere his bandmates were.
I was conscious thathe was possibly hiding something. It was probably the part about the girl, so I pressed on with my questions. “What about your family, girlfriend?”
Alfie sighed. “My sister and an aunt.” His answer gave me nothing to work with.
There was still no mention of the girl. “No one else?”
